World leaders want American AI, but fear US can turn it off
At the G7 summit, French President Macron and Indian PM Modi voiced concerns that the US could cut off access to top AI models at any time, especially after the Trump administration blocked Anthropic's latest models on national security grounds.
During the G7 summit on Wednesday, world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concerns that the United States could abruptly cut off access to leading American AI models. The anxiety was heightened after the Trump administration blocked exports of Anthropic's newest models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, citing national security risks.
Macron warned over lunch with G7 leaders and top AI executives, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and President Donald Trump, that if the US could "turn off the switch from one day to the next," it could harm not only the economies of European customers but also the AI companies themselves. The block came after Amazon alerted the White House that certain safety guardrails could be bypassed, though cybersecurity experts have argued that similar capabilities exist in freely available models, including those from OpenAI.
Prime Minister Modi expressed concern about Trump's move, stressing that democratic nations need unfettered access to top AI models to protect critical infrastructure. Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Canadian enterprise AI firm Cohere, said in a statement that the restriction confirms the danger of relying on a small handful of big tech companies. "Digital sovereignty is not just about market competition or any one company or nation. It's about who controls the foundational technology that will shape our economic security and national sovereignty for decades to come," he said.
G7 leaders also discussed creating a "trusted partners" scheme that would grant non-US nations access to advanced AI models from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, bypassing US restrictions. Both countries and companies could become trusted partners if they used the models to strengthen defenses against rivals such as China. However, the scope of the scheme remains unclear, and it may not help startups that suddenly lose access.
Macron suggested it would make sense for Washington to support such a scheme and ensure broader Mythos access. "Nobody would want to buy US AI access if it could disappear overnight," he noted. The discussions come as Europe and other countries push for AI sovereignty, though this is increasingly challenging as American models continue to outpace rivals.
